There is a great demand to be slimmer. The tried and true method of taking in fewer calories than a person expends results in weight loss, and the resultant slimming effect occurs over the body as a whole. For more targeted contouring, many people resort to the cosmetic surgical procedure known as liposuction, wherein excess adipose tissue, also known as fat, is suctioned from the body of a patient. The typical purpose of the liposuction procedure is to leave the patient thinner in desired areas, with aesthetically more appealing body contours. For example, liposuction is often performed on patients to remove excess fat in the abdominal, buttock, thigh, breast or arm regions of the body.
Liposuction is performed by inserting a narrow tube, or cannula, through a tiny incision in the skin into the subcutaneous fatty tissue. The cannula is repeatedly pushed then pulled through the fat layer, separating and puncturing the fat cells and suctioning them out. Suction action through the cannula is provided by a vacuum pump or a large syringe. The procedure carries with it some risks and side effects. Due to the physical damage induced, the procedure can damage nerves, lymphatics and vasculature in the surrounding area, often resulting in significant loss of blood as the blood is vacuumed out with the fat and the formation of seroma due to damaged lymphatic channels. In addition, the post-procedure recovery period is long and often accompanied by a great deal of inflammation, bruising and concomitant pain.
Since the liposuction technique was first developed there have been many improvements to techniques for contouring the body, with the goal of making the surgery less dangerous for the patient, reducing the negative aspects of the post-operative recovery period, and making it more commercially viable for the practitioner who treats the patient.
Non-invasive methods of body contouring are preferred over invasive methods to minimize trauma to the patient, reduce the risk of infection, and speed up recovery time, among other reasons. To avoid invasive procedures, electromagnetic energy, such as microwave, ultrasound or radio frequency radiation, has been used to reduce fat. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,790 issued to Weiss, a method is described in which a medicament is applied to a patient's skin where fat removal is desired and focused electromagnetic energy is applied to the same work site to heat the fatty tissue and increase fat lipolysis. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,063, Fellner takes this method even farther, applying sufficient electromagnetic radiation to destroy the fat cells. Yet another method is to inject an intumescing solution below the skin and apply electromagnetic energy externally to the body. These procedures are disadvantageous in that they utilize such high energy sources that they excessively heat the surrounding tissue, which can result in damage to the tissue and pain. Again, recovery time is significant.
In a recent innovation, a procedure was developed by a group including one of the inventors of this method which uses red LLLT alone, to contour the body by reducing fat. The procedure is described in U.S. Pat Pub. 2005/0203594 and involves using a device having lasers of less than 1 W to apply one or more treatments of 635 nm laser energy externally to the patient to release at least a portion of the intracellular fat into the interstitial space. Upon sufficient doses of this low-level laser energy at 635 nm, the cell membrane was thought to be momentarily disrupted, releasing the intracellular fat into the interstitial space. Upon cessation of the energy application, the pores closed and the cell membrane returned to contiguity. The treated and surrounding tissue was not heated and not damaged, and the patient felt no sensation during the application of the 635 nm laser energy. The released fat was removed from the patient's body through one or more of the patient's normal bodily systems. This method revolutionized the market for body contouring because it reduced fat with no trauma to the patient.
The LLLT industry heretofore believed that using lasers with wavelengths shorter than about 632 nm would fail to non-traumatically shape a patient's body. One reason is that it is believed that the shorter wavelengths would not penetrate the skin deep enough to reach the fat cells and other tissues needed to attain shaping. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,771,374 issued to Slatkine, discloses that melanin and blood in the skin do not allow light at 405 nm, 514 nm or 585 nm to penetrate deep into the skin due to strong absorption. Instead, the patent discloses using a vacuum to expel blood from the treatment area to improve treatment of the tissue.
Lasers emit electromagnetic energy, which can be described by frequency, wavelength, or energy. Laser diodes with shorter wavelengths have a higher energy than laser diodes with longer wavelengths. Another reason that it was believed that the shorter wavelengths would fail to non-traumatically reduce fat was because in order to penetrate the skin to a deep-enough depth, the higher-energy wavelengths would heat the surrounding tissue through which the laser penetrated, traumatizing the patient. Laser devices emitting wavelengths shorter than about 632 nm lasers are known in the art, but only for ablative treatments. To cool the radiated skin and minimize trauma to the patient, complicated cooling components were invented to reduce the heat generated by the shorter wavelength therapeutic lasers. For example, in U.S. Pat. Pub 2008/0294153, Altshuler describes a cooling system for a green laser light used as a thermal treatment to remove a red portion of a tattoo by causing the death of the cells containing the tattoo ink particles by rupture or apoptosis.
Yet another reason that it was believed that the shorter wavelengths would fail to non-traumatically shape a targeted area of the body is that any wavelength other than about 635 nm would be ineffective for stimulating the cell to open the transitory pore to release fat. Consequently, only devices emitting red laser energy have been used for shaping the body.
While the red LLLT is effective in reducing fat, patients and doctors have clamored for a non-invasive method of slimming that takes less treatment time. It would be desirable to capitalize on the higher energy of shorter wavelengths to do so in less time than prior art methods, without traumatizing the tissue. Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a non-invasive method of reducing the circumference of desired areas of a human body in less time than prior art methods. Another object is to provide a non-invasive method of reducing the circumference desired areas of a human body in less time than prior art methods, which does not destroy fat cells or otherwise damage surrounding tissue or structures. It is another object of the method to slim the patient's body as a whole. It is another object to provide a non-invasive method of slimming a human body using lasers emitting wavelengths shorter than 632 nm.